


To the edge of the world

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Gigan and the pirates are a family, Pirate mom and dragon son, Pre-Canon, Ryokuryuu feels, there is no parenting manual for dragon kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 06:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9165319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Ten years before Yona’s arrival in Awa, two boys are sent to stow away on a ship headed for Kai, to gather information on the dealings of the new lord of Awa, Yang Kum-ji. But what should have been a simple information gathering mission goes quickly awry, for the power of a dragon can be unpredictable…





	

Gigan was sitting in her captain’s cabin, the flame of the lantern swaying in the gentle, familiar motion of the ship, when she heard it. At the sound of shouting from the deck above, cut through by the urgent peals of the alarm bell, she let the map she had been scrutinising - for the hundredth time today it seemed - spring back into a tight roll. She stood up, checking the knives hidden within her sleeves with a sense of foreboding as she hurried from the room towards the sound.

The night was overcast, the salt wind colder than she had expected as she reached the deck. A light, misty rain was falling. Several of her men and some of the younger boys too were clustered at one side, hauling up a rowboat from the waters of the harbour as she came up behind them. Their faces were white and nervous and everyone talked over each other, a confused jumble of voices. But they went silent, parting to let her past when they saw their captain come.

Two boys were in the boat, one still clinging to the oars as though his hands were fused to them, stiff and trembling, the other lying at the bottom, his long, green hair glistening with water, his eyes closed.

“Captain!” Tatsu called out as she came, his voice high with panic, as many hands reached out to the two of them, half-lifting them from the boat. “I’m… I’m sorry, something happened to Jae-ha, he needs help, I didn’t know what to do…”

* * *

Tatsu was still trembling when she sought him out again, later. The others had wrapped him in a blanket and sat him by the burner, buzzing about him like moths and talking in hushed voices that were still too loud for the boy who had his arms wrapped close about himself, staring wide-eyed into the flame. It was only after having shooed the others swiftly out that he finally looked up and met her eye.

She sat down on the wooden bench beside him, in silence for a long moment.

“Captain Gigan?” he asked, tentatively. He sounded like he was expecting a scolding or worse, she thought with a pang.

“Tatsu” she said, calmly. “I want you to tell me everything that happened to you and Jae-ha tonight.”

For a moment he stared up at her with wide, reddened eyes. “I… I don’t really know what happened, why he fell, but…”

“Start from the beginning” she said gently, lighting her kiseru from a taper, with studied calm.

“Ah…. alright, well, we were stowing away on Kum-ji’s ship, like you told us.” When she nodded encouragingly, he seemed to gather his courage, breathing more slowly as the smoke began to curl about them both. “It was a windy night and I was going to go see if we could listen in to the captain and the first mate, like we had planned, to see if they mentioned anything about their cargo, see? We had just left the inlet and were coming into Kai waters, we reckoned. And Jae-ha was going to watch the deck from the crow’s nest, and make a bird sound if someone seemed likely to see me.”

Gigan nodded again; that was all as they had planned on shore, before she had sent the two boys out to spy.

“But the thing is, he looked… I don’t know, sick. All pale and trembling. I asked if he was alright, but you know how Jae-ha is, he made some joke, laughed it off…” there were tears starting at the corners of Tatsu’s eyes; he wiped angrily at them, and Gigan pretended that she hadn’t seen. “I think he had a fever then too, even though he was trying to hide it. But he… I… we had argued, before, so I didn’t… I just turned to go listen at the cabin window. Next thing I knew, there was this sound, a scream and a crash, and… and…”

“Take your time. Jae-ha’s going to be alright, he’s asleep now. He’s safe.”

Tatsu nodded, unhappily. “It was windy, he shouldn’t have been trying to… to fly like he does. I told him, that idiot, he should have just climbed the rigging like a normal person. He was sick, and he didn’t _listen_ ….”

Gigan nodded. “What happened then?”

Tatsu gulped, swallowing a sob. “I didn’t see everything, but I saw him miss his footing in the crow’s nest… it was beginning to rain and it was slippery, see? Stupid Jae-ha.” Tatsu gritted his teeth. “He fell and I saw him hit the rail on the way down… that must be when his shoulder got dislocated, I think. It… it was a long fall. Then he fell in the water. I was about to go save him, I swear I was! I… I was about to jump in after him, but…” Tatsu shook his head. “It was strange. I thought for sure all the crew would come running at the noise and catch us just like that. I thought we were done for. But they didn’t. There was just this one man… he appeared out of nowhere and jumped in the water to save Jae-ha, and pulled him back on the deck.”

Gigan raised an eyebrow. “He was one of the crew? One of Kum-ji’s men?”

Tatsu looked doubtful. “I guess he must have been? Who else… I mean… it’s not like I stopped to ask, but why would he be on Kum-ji’s ship otherwise?”

“Well, the two of you were” said Gigan thoughtfully, more to herself than to Tatsu. “Tell me more about him.”

“I… d-didn’t pay much attention to that guy” stammered Tatsu. “Um… he looked young I guess. I thought he was just a kid at first, but I think he was about the same age as Jae-ha and me. Oh! And bright gold hair, the brightest I ever saw. And a pretty gold necklace!” He laughed slightly. “I guess I woulda tried to steal that thing once, but I didn’t…”

Gigan smiled too, ruffling Tatsu’s hair. “I know you would, scamp. But can you tell me anything more about him?”

Tatsu frowned. “I didn’t pay much attention, sorry. He was the one that put Jae-ha’s shoulder back in place, I couldn’t…” Tatsu looked very pale. “He was laying Jae-ha him in one of the rowboats and I…” he looked down at his hands. “I, uh…” he mumbled something unintelligible.

“What?”

“I was worried for Jae-ha! So I, uh… I kind of punched that guy in the face and pushed him out of the boat. Then I stole it and rowed back here, along the coast.” Tatsu looked regretful. “I think I knocked him out. I know I shouldn’t have, if he was trying to help us… but I don’t think I hurt him much? Definitely didn’t kill him, anyway?”

“It’s probably for the best” Gigan said, thinking that the last thing they needed was a witness, especially if he was one of Kum-ji’s men. The new lord of Awa was still too much of an unknown quantity, but she couldn’t help but be suspicious of him; if her life had taught her anything, it was that being suspicious of men like Kum-ji was likely to keep one and one’s allies alive. It was why she had sent the two boys to spy in the first place. “You did what you thought you had to.” She sighed, inhaled the fragrant smoke deeply. The man with golden hair who had saved Jae-ha was odd, in a passing sort of way, but for now she that particular small mystery to one side to think on later. “Right now, all that matters is the two of you are safe.”

The boy nodded, sniffing. “I should have been quicker getting him back though. He… he was sick, really sick, that idiot! I don’t know with what, he was fine when the ship left the harbour!” Tatsu faltered. “Captain, is it just a normal sickness that Jae-ha caught? Or… is it something to do with…” he gestured. “Jae-ha’s…ah… him being a…. a dragon warrior? …I kept wondering that.”

“I don’t know, Tatsu” said Gigan. It was the question that had been bothering her, too. “When he wakes up, I’ll ask him if it’s ever happened before. But for now, we can only let him sleep. They’ve given him something for the pain of the shoulder injury, and his fever’s already going down, so I’m told.” Gigan tipped the ash from her kiseru, then reached over and briefly squeezed Tatsu’s hand, which was still trembling a little. “You did well, boy.”

* * *

“Captain!”

“Oh, you’re awake? About time.”

Jae-ha simply stared as Gigan entered the cabin, the curtain falling back in to place behind her as she laid down the tray on the tiny table beside the berth. As she straightened up, she could not help but catch the slight instinctive motion as he twitched the rumpled blankets over his bare feet, hiding the emerald scales from view. She pretended she had not seen, of course, as she always did. Gigan supposed that Jae-ha saw through this sort of thing easily enough - _he was a sharp kid, after all_ \- yet still he always seemed to appreciate it. They had something of an understanding now, and besides, he was far more at ease around her than he had been, only three short years ago.

He did not look happy now, though. He stared back at her with wide, nervous eyes as she regarded him, his body tense with apprehension.

Or, perhaps, it was just pain; she eyed the brace and sling binding his left shoulder and arm in place. She frowned. “You’re not in pain?”

He grimaced a little. “Not… as much, no. Ro-en got some medicine for me from his mother’s shop in the city. That helped.”

“Good. And your fever has gone down?”

He nodded, slowly.

They were silent for a long moment, each lost in their own thoughts. Jae-ha avoided her eyes, looking down at his one free hand, bunched in the blanket.

“I brought you some food” she said, after a while. “You must be hungry.”

He looked up, then over at the tray. “Oh. Why did you bring me food?”

She sighed, folding her arms. “Because you need to eat, brat.”

“No, why did _you_ bring it, Captain?” Even as he spoke, he let her place the tray on his lap, steadied by his knees so that he could lift the spoon to eat the soup with his good hand. She knew well enough how much he would hate being fed like a child, after all.

“Because I wanted to talk to you.” _Because I wanted to make sure you were alright._ But she knew he understood that from her words. She smiled wryly. “Think of it as reporting back to your Captain on an unsuccessful spying mission, if you like.”

Jae-ha pause with a spoonful of soup halfway to his mouth, meeting her gaze with the one eye that wasn’t covered by a dishevelled fall of loose green hair; his face was guarded, difficult to read. He lowered the spoon. “I’m… sorry, Captain. Sorry I ruined our chances to find out what Kum-ji’s really doing. Sorry for what happened to me.”

“Slow down, kid. I don’t even know what really happened” she said, more gently. “And telling me exactly as you remember it would be a start.”

He looked at her for a little while longer, taking another mouthful of soup, swallowing, then laying the spoon back on the tray. “I… I don’t even know, really” he admitted, his hand bunching once more in the blanket. “As we sailed, I began to feel dizzy, sick. It wasn’t _bad_ though, it wasn’t like…” he gritted his teeth in frustration. “We were going to come out of hiding and start looking around when we reached Kai waters.”

She nodded; this had all been according to the plan that she had talked the two boys through, in her own cabin not three days past. She often sent the two of them spying for her; Jae-ha was an obvious choice for such tasks with his power, but as he was frustratingly prone to breaking with the plan and doing something reckless and stupid, she often sent the more level-headed Tatsu along with him. They worked well together, and from amongst her pirates, she was good at picking out who worked well together.

But nothing like this had ever happened before.

“Do you remember anything else?”

“I jumped, and then… I slipped, fell…” he scrunched up his face like a small child. “I remember hitting the rail, and then…” he shook his head, frustrated. “I must have blacked out then. The next thing I remember is being in a boat, with Tatsu rowing, but I don’t remember that well.”

“Do you remember who pulled you from the water?”

“No.” He frowned. “I mean, I thought maybe I felt… for a moment…” he shivered, though the room was warm.

“What?”

“…..Ah… no, I think it was just a fever dream.”

She nodded. “Tatsu told me” she said, “that you got worse quickly.”

“Very” he said, hand curling loosely the elbow of his injured arm. “My balance was off…”

She frowned. “And yet you still decided to try that jump, huh? Have you been drinking seawater?”

Jae-ha winced. “I just wanted to… get it over. Get it done.” He glared up at her, defiant. “You trusted me with… something like this… and I wanted to do it _well_ , okay? Whoever this man Kum-ji really is, whatever he’s really doing… it affects Awa, now he’s in charge. It affects everyone here.”

“We haven’t seen the end of him, that’s for sure. But there will be other chances to investigate him. What matters is you’re safe.”

Jae-ha scowled. “But it’s all this power is good for, anyway. All I’m good for.”

Gigan opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again, changing her mind. “Jae-ha.”

He looked up at her, the frown on his face accentuating the deep shadows under his eyes. He had grown so much, since their first meeting three years earlier; he had learned to charm since then, how to smile at people to wrap them around his little finger. These days, he was becoming adept at wearing his smiles like masks, too. But he wasn’t wearing one now, and that, Gigan had come to know, meant that this strange boy with the power of a god - that she had come to love like a son, if she was honest with herself - trusted her more than anyone. With her, he could let his fears show, trusting her not to use that knowledge to hurt him.

But even so, she knew he had not told her everything. “Jae-ha” she said again, fixing him in her gaze. “You know you don’t need to put yourself at risk like that. I’ve taught you better.”

He frowned. “I just… wanted to help.”

“No” she said. “That’s not it, is it?”

“What?”

“I don’t believe you, when you say that you only wanted to help. I know that you still feel that you owe me a debt, you owe me more than any of the others do…”

“Captain, no…”

“You still feel that you have to earn your keep here by taking the most dangerous responsibilities on yourself.”

He avoided her eye, his skinny shoulders hunching forward. He had grown so quickly lately, his limbs stretching too fast for his muscles to catch up, and he had a certain angular, gangling look, almost reminiscent of his half-starved appearance when she had first met him. Still, that would not last this time, she knew. He would be tall in adulthood; he was only fifteen and already as tall as she was.

“I _am_ stronger than them” he mumbled, staring down into his bowl. “I can take it!”

“Take it? Take what?” she folded her arms, speaking before he could. “And if you say you can take any injury, get hurt because your power makes you special… no, don’t turn away. Look at me.”

He did, and she carried on, a little more gently. “You’re one of my crew, Jae-ha. Just the same as the others, no different. And no mission, no task, is worth you getting hurt.”

He stared at her, looking as though he wanted to argue, but then, after a while, he subsided, nodding. “Y-yes. I’m sorry, Captain.”

She nodded, briskly, and ruffled his hair. “Eat your soup before it gets cold.”

She sat there with him in companionable silence as he ate, and when he was finished she helped him move the tray back to the table, passing him the cup of water so that he could drink.

Rest and food had brought some colour back to his cheeks now, but she could not help but think of how he had looked when Tatsu had brought him back, half-conscious and sodden and shivering convulsively, eyelashes stuck into salt-water points against fevered, blotchy cheeks. Her men who had gathered on the deck to pull the two of them from the boat parted when she strode towards the gunwale. The  wave of dread she had felt as she caught a glimpse of Jae-ha’s still form.

In that moment, too, his wet hair had coiled darkly across his face and neck like seaweed, mouth slightly open to show a tooth that was just a little sharper than most humans’. With the glint of scales from where his bare foot, for a moment, the sight of him brought back memories of old tales spoken upon the sea in the glimmering light of a lantern. Gigan had heard the legends of course; every sailor did, and all her life she had never been able to stand being far from the sea for long. Stories of mermaids and sirens, devious creatures who came from the sea and ensnared the hearts of the hapless. But the thing was, she thought sometimes, the ones in the stories were always beautiful women who lured idiot men out in storms to be dashed upon the rocks. They were never a scrawny, bedraggled young boy with the power of a god and the ghosts of a thousand years behind his eyes, never a child who was so clearly crying out for a family like a drowning man calling for help, even if he would rather drown himself in the harbour than call with his own voice.

She would never speak to Jae-ha of such an impression of course, and, in fact, dismissed it almost as soon as it came to her mind. He was and always would be human, first and foremost. If he was anything else, it mattered not to her except insofar as it helped her to achieve her goals. That was what she had always told him, when he fell into one of his black moods - those, too, were growing fewer and farther between these last years - and that was the truth of it.

When he laid the cup aside, she folded her arms. “There’s still one thing I don’t understand” she said. “What happened to you? Your sickness, the fever… it came and then faded quickly, I’m told…?” _Too quickly to be natural_. The thought rose from where it had been lurking at the back of her mind.

He must have seen it clearly behind her words, for he looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Yes.”

“And you’ve never… had anything like that before.”

He shook his head.

“You weren’t already sick?”

“No, I was fine.”

“And you didn’t eat or drink anything out of the ordinary? Especially if it was offered by someone on that ship. If you accepted, someone could have drugged you…”

“Captain, _would_ I do something like that?” there was a flicker of one of his unconcerned smiles, but there was the ghost of pain and weariness behind it.

“Well, I don’t know. _Would_ you?”

“No! How stupid do you think I am?”

“Alright, alright, I was just trying to go through the possibilities.” She frowned. “There’s one more that I can think of.”

He looked up at her, as though he knew exactly what she was going to say.

“Jae-ha, once you told me… that the dragon warriors’ lives are cut short when their successor is born.” She remembered how the words had spilled from his mouth, too fast, his breath hitching with sobs as he had woken from a screaming, thrashing nightmare, soon after he had come to her. Now she watched him wince, knowing he was remembering the same thing. “I’m sorry, but I need to check, Jae-ha.” She met his eyes. “That’s not what happened…. is it?” _Tell me it’s not that._

“That’s….” his voice was almost too soft to hear. “That’s what I thought too, at first.”

Her eyes widened.

“My predecessor was fifteen when I was born. _I’m_ fifteen. So at first… I thought…”

“ _Thought_? You mean, you don’t think so now?” She felt out of her depth here, with no idea of how to help with this. It was not a pleasant feeling, this utter powerlessness in the face of the work of the gods.

“No, I don’t” he said quietly, sending a wave of relief through her. “I… I would be able to sense it. They’re almost like…” he gestured helplessly, as though trying to pin down something that couldn’t be described by words. “They feel like… lights in my head. The other dragons, that is. If there was a new Ryokuryuu, I would know. And… and I’ve been searching, reaching out, since I woke up. And I can’t feel anything.”

“Oh. Are you sure?”

He looked up at her. “Well… not _sure_ ” he admitted. “But I think.”

She nodded, then reached over and hugged him, taking care not to jostle his bandaged shoulder. “That’s… that’s good.” It wasn’t enough, but for the moment, it was all she had.

She felt his free arm come up to hug her back. “Yes” he said, relaxing a little in her arms. “Yes, it is.” He drew away, took a breath, and looked up at her. “Captain, I don’t know what happened to me tonight. And… I know… I won’t always be able to say this, but…” He smiled, a sad smile that made him look much older than his years. “Just for now… I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”


End file.
